On the water, safety and etiquette go together
The high-pitched hum of an unseen boat’s wideopen engine somewhere up the narrow bayou grew louder and so did the buzz of alarms in my head.
“They can’t be that stupid,” I thought out loud before wariness born of experience instantly overrode incredulity.
Yes, the person operating that boat could be that stupid. Or inexperienced, ignorant, impaired or infused with hubris. Most boaters aren’t. But some are. This guy proved to be among the latter.
He came blasting down the bayou, a waterway less than 10 yards wide in most places and sprinkled with obstructions, sharp bends and blind curves, where thick forest and foliage further obscured what was ahead.
It was pure luck that he missed shearing off his lower unit or worse on one of the submerged pilings that once supported a long-gone bridge over the bayou. And when the blueand-white runabout came around a blind corner and into the relative straightaway where I’d quickly maneuvered my boat tight against the muddy bank and as much behind a cypress tree as possible, the driver and his passengers acted as if they never saw us frantically waving our arms.
The boat blew by us, passing within 10 feet and nearly swamping us with its wake. The boat never slowed down, and its occupants never looked-back.
It took maybe half an hour before anger and adrenaline subsided enough that I could try to enjoy what had been a fine morning of fishing. But the truth is, that near-miss experience colored the rest of what should have been a day of pleasant and positive memories.
Such bad boating experiences are thankfully rare but not rare enough. Breaches of boating rules, written and unwritten, occur far too often. And if you don’t believe that, just ask any longtime Texas boater. The bad behavior of other boaters can be frustrating and maddening at best and outright dangerous or deadly at worst.
These violations of boating laws and, more often and more commonly, etiquette peak during summer. This is to be expected as summer brings more boats to the water than any other time of the year. But the withering effects of a Texas summer’s searing heat on patience can’t be discounted, either. Crowded water and heat-shortened tempers are not a good combination.
Blatant and dangerous violations of boating safety laws such as the one mentioned above are relatively rare. Much more common are transgressions of unwritten rules guiding boater behavior.
Both often are a result of ignorance rather than malice, although in many instances it is hard to convince yourself of that.
Recreational boating is a mostly self-taught activity, with boaters building knowledge through experience. Yes, Texas has a boating education requirement mandating that those born Sept. 1, 1993 and later-pass a test before operating most powerboats and sailboats. That is a good thing. But the boater education course is a wholly academic exercise with no requirement of on-the-water experience, learning or testing. And the course doesn’t cover many situations that can cause friction with other boaters.
The upshot is that many novice boaters — and a fair number of experienced ones, it seems — don’t realize when they are crossing lines or that those metaphoric lines even exist.
Over more than 50 years of operating boats on public waters, I have seen a lot of line crossing. And while I am sure no one reading this breaks any boating laws and knows and abides by boating’s unwritten protocols, perhaps they can pass what follows to someone who might benefit from a crash course in such things.
An inordinate number of boating etiquette breaches occur before boats get on the water. Behavior at boat ramps can start or end a trip on an ugly note.
The only thing as frustrating as waiting in line at a launch site while another boater backs a trailered vessel down a ramp and then spends 10 minutes loading rods, tackle, ice chests and other gear from vehicle to boat is to have the same thing happen in reverse, waiting while a boater who just put a boat on a trailer at the end of a day takes 10 minutes to unload everything from the boat before pulling out.
The proper thing is to do that prelaunch loading in the boat launch parking area before wheeling to the ramp itself. Prep the boat, remove tie-down straps, put the plug in the transom drain, load rod and tackle and coolers and such so that all that time in the ramp is minimized and the next person can put in or take out.
The same applies when putting a boat back on the trailer. Get in quickly and get out of the way. Unloading can be done in the parking area. It’s just basic courtesy, as is most boating etiquette.
Also, if launching before dawn or after dark, turn off vehicle headlights when in the ramp of a multilane ramp with other folks launching. Those up-angled headlights blind anyone trying to back down in the other ramps.
Vehicle headlights aren’t the only light causing boaters problems these days. The recent proliferation of high-intensity LED light bars folks put on some boats may be great for illuminating what is in front of a boat while its running at night or in low-light conditions. But the things blind oncoming boaters, especially in confined waterways such as rivers, boat lanes, channels and the Intracoastal Waterway. Use them with discretion.
Watch your wake. In most situations when running near boats either at anchor or just floating as with folks fishing, especially in confined areas, back the engine down to idle speed so the wake is minimal. It can be tempting to run past such other boats while on plane because a boat running on plane creates minimal wake. This is a judgment call. If you are in open water, and there is enough room to run past such boats at a distance — a minimum of 50 yards is a fair distance and farther is better — it usually is OK to run on plane. But, again, discretion is required. If in doubt, slow down to idle speed.
Give anglers plenty of room. In most cases, it is a breach of etiquette (and an invitation to a serious cussing, at best) to run a boat anywhere close to anglers actively fishing.
In areas where several boats of anglers concentrate by choice — such as jetties, reefs and popular open-water fishing spots such as white-bass hot spots on reservoirs — the rules are a bit different. In such instances, be careful and considerate about keeping a respectable distance to avoid “invading their space.” This can be a delicate issue, as anglers’ definitions of “too close” are elastic and personal. A good rule of thumb is to stay more than casting distance from another boat and the farther the better.
An increasing number of paddlecraft are populating Texas public waters — kayaks, especially. This creates boating etiquette and boating safety issues for the paddlers and powerboaters. Paddlers and powerboaters need to be aware that the low profile of kayaks can make the paddlecraft tough for powerboaters to see. This is an especially crucial issue early and late in the day and in confined waters such as rivers and the bayous, inlets and back-bay lakes of coastal estuaries.
Paddlers on the water between dusk and sunrise should always have operating navigation lights on their craft; Texas boating law requires it, although many paddlers appear either unaware of the law or ignore it. This can — and has — resulted in many close calls and some tragic consequences.
Paddlers using confined waters, particularly coastal bayous and back-bay lakes also frequented by powerboats, should always fit their craft with a kayak safety flag, a 4- to 6-foot pole topped by a bright flag.
Powerboaters running those backwaters where blind curves and narrow waters increase the chances of sudden encounters with kayaks or even other powerboats should be particularly watchful. And when they do share the water with the smaller kayaks, be particularly careful about their boat’s wake.
Some boaters seem to forget that sound travels well on the water. This can prove amusing when folks forget their conversations can be clearly heard by people in that boat 200 yards away.
It is not amusing when the sound coming from a nearby boat is cranked-up music. It’s maddening. And it has become nearly epidemic on some waters as stereo systems become almost standard equipment on many boats, including recreational fishing rigs.
Fishing boats blaring music while drifting a bay flat, anchored over a midbay reef, in a lake cove or any other area where other boaters are fishing is simply unacceptable. It’s rude. It’s aggravating. Doing it shows a contempt for others.
People who play music in their boat while fishing are dreadfully missing the point. Worse, they are ruining other people’s enjoyment of time on the water. Turn it off. Please.
Boating etiquette’s unwritten rules are aimed at making boating safer and more enjoyable for everyone. And it’s an easy path to follow. It’s just common sense and common decency, two things that seem not so common sometimes.